Some years ago Dick Bryant, our beloved editor, encouraged me to come up with an ancients variant using the "On To Richmond" play mechanics. Well, I never got around to it until a number of things happened. I got into a nasty argument with Kruse Smith at Origins 86. If Kruse ever reads this I wish to apologize to him for any offense. He was engaged in refereeing the WRG tournament and that is the most thankless job in wargaming. I am sorry for any additional frustration I might have caused. In addition I got two ready-painted armies of Greek Successor States as a present from my longtime buddy Mike Guth. Finally the ESCI Gauls and Romans were released. That coupled with the reality that I was not capable of penetrating the turgid prose of the WRG editions led me to do something. I have therefore at long last come up with an Ancients variant for OTR. I have however retained the WRG basing system knowing full well that nearly all ancient gamers have their armies so mounted. Try this one out - it has been f un for us sunbaked Californians who can't quite manage the WRG eccentricities and complexities. These humble rules make no claims for completeness in the vast ancient scene. They were designed for Romans and Gauls with some late Greek Successor States thrown in because those were the troops we had to play with. it is not by chance that these are available in plastic too. If any readers have ideas for different armies of the ancient period please share them with us. By the way when we refer to "Gauls", we mean generic hairy barbarian types. ORGANIZATION While basing is on WRG, 6cm wide stands, we gather the stands into standard six to eight-stand units of horse and foot as in OTR. This gives a nice visual look to the units, and fits the rules nicely. OPERATIONS As in the rest of this variant anything not stated is as found in the OTR rules. Horse archers and mounted javelin men, etc., may move 1/2, fire, and then move/2. Likewise elephants, archers and slingers may full move and fire. Units are divided not by division but by more ad hoc wings and subgroupings. In regular armies this should amount to about 3 to 5 groupings each on a card. Barbarian armies each unit, or at most 2, should have its own movement card. The rest of the sequence is as in OTR. COMBAT VALUES (CV) & QUALITY Leaders and troops are graded as in the Union chart, but feel free to make up your own based on historical understanding. Infantry and Cavalry are graded by weight as well as experience. Chart as follows: Infantry Light Medium Heavy Green 2CV 3CV 4CV Regular 3CV 4CV 5CV Veteran 4CV 5CV 6CV Elite 5CV 6CV 7CV Infantry Light Medium Heavy Green 4CV 5CV 6CV Regular 5CV 6CV 7CV Veteran 6CV 7CV 8CV Elite 7CV 8CV 9CV MOVEMENT Formations and movement are quite changed as one might guess. Here is a new set of formations: FORMATION Cav Inf COMMENTS March Column 20" 12" Stands one behind the other CV of 0 if meleed. Line 12/24" 6/8" Stands abreast. Phalanx - 9/9" No special movement; +1 in melee vs line. Wedge 12/18" 9/9" No special movement; +1 in melee vs line or phalanx. Pincer 12/18" 9/9" No special movement; +1 in melee vs wedge. Testudo - 6/6" Roman infantry only; no special movement; proof against missiles. Schiltron - 3/3" No special movement; no flanks; +2 in melee against cavalry only. Modifiers: Light Infantry+2"; Heavy Infantry-2"; Light Cavalry +3"; Heavy Cavalry-3". Gauls move as Lights but fight as Mediums until they lose their first melee; fight as Lights thereafter. FIREPOWER Units of javelin men, slingers and archers are classified as missile troops and fire 2 stands deep. They may fire and full move. They may retreat if attacked, one full move, this being their move for the following turn; if caught by pursuers, the attacker's melee score will be doubled. Romans are combat infantry but also may hurl pila. WEAPON RANGE Javelin 6" Pilum 3" Slings & Bows 12" FIRE RESULTS TABLE Roll once per group of 6 stands firing. On a modified die roll of: 0-4 Lose 1 stand 5-7 Receive morale marker 8+ No effect MELEE A couple of new modifiers need to be added: Pike armed +1 Gaulic Charge +2 (used until unit loses a melee, then 0) Missile troops in melee -1 vs infantry, -2 vs cavalry MORALE A new morale chart is needed. One for regulars and one for barbarians. Regulars Roll Barbarians rout 00-04 rout wd-2 05-14 rout wd-1 15-19 wd-2 stand 20-24 wd-2 deploy 25-29 wd-1 1/2speed 30-34 deploy 45 right 35-39 stand 45 left 40-44 45 right ne 45-49 45 right ne 50-59 45 left ne 60-79 ne ne 80-89 advance advance 90-94 revenge revenge 95-99 revenge Modifiers: Lights -5 Heavies +5 Barbarians victorious in melee +10 ELEPHANTS These beasties are included mostly because I like to paint them: Type CV Movement Melee Light Elephant 16 12" +1 vs cav Heavy Elephant 20 9" +1 vs cav They have a missile roll: 0=1 stand lost; 1,2=morale hit. Like artillery in OTR they require 2 hits to kill. WAR ENGINES These come in two weights and types; stone throwers and bolt throwers in both light and heavy varieties. As in OTR artillery, they take 2 hitsto kill. Item Movement Range Comment Light Stone Thrwrs 6" (3" & fire) 9-21" May be fire overhead Heavy Stone Thrwrs 3" (0" & fire) 9-15" May be fired overhead Light Bolt Thrwrs 6" (3" & fire) 15" No overhead fire Heavy Bolt Thrwrs 3" (0" & fire) 18" No overhead fire FIRE TABLE Weight Kill Morale Modifier Light 0-1 2,3 +1 vs Light Infantry, Light Cav. and Chariots Heavy 0-2 3-5 CHARIOTS Light chariots move, fire and fight as light cavalry in line and column formations only. Heavy chariots move, fire and fight as medium cavalry. They may also full move and fire of move 1/2, fire, and move 1/2. Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VIII No. 1 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1987 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com